The present invention relates generally to garments and, more particularly, is directed to a garment that can be used to remove static electricity in a clean room.
When handling static sensitive electronic components, such as intergrated circuits and the like, there is a problem of damaging such components due to static electricity. One method of grounding such static electric charges has been to provide a wrist strap about the wrist of the individual handling such components, which is in contact with the skin and is connected to ground by a wire connected to the wrist strap. As a result, the electrostatic charge accumulation on the individual is dissipated and the accumulation of additional electrostatic charge is prevented. Such conductive wrist straps are also provided in situations where the individual can be hurt, for example, in the proximity of an explosive or hazardous environments. Wrist bands of this type are shown and disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,373,175; 4,459,633; 4,475,141; 4,398,277; and 4,654,748, the entire disclosure of the later U.S. Pat. No. 4,654,748 being incorporated herein by reference.
With such wrist bands, an electrical cable is connected to a strap on the wrist band for dissipating the static electricity. However, such wrist straps generally only remove electricity from the body or skin of the person. In addition, such wrist straps are disadvantageous since they provide limited freedom of movement. This is because the wrist of a person moves over the greatest range of distance while working in an electrical clean room.
As aforementioned, such conventional wrist straps only remove static electricity from the body or skin of a person. However, static electricity also exists on the clothing of a person. In this regard, U.S. Pat. No. 4,680,668 discloses a wrist strap which attaches to the cuff of a garment to remove static electricity therefrom. However, the problem of limited range of movement remains.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,596,134 discloses apparatus for discharging electrostatic energy in which a belt 10a is attached around the waist of the person and has a flexible lead 36 with a clip member 38 at the free end thereof. Such apparatus also includes garters 10 and boots 14 for removing static electricity. However, such device is extremely cumbersome and unwieldy, particularly with the view to quickly and easily removing and/or wearing the different parts.
It is also known to remove static electricity from garments by providing an antistatic garment, for example, as sold by Angelica Uniform Group of St. Louis, Mo. and in this regard reference is made to U.S. Pat. No. 4,422,483 owned by this same company, and the entire disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference. Such garments remove static electricity from the body of the person and static electricity that is collected in the garment itself. However, there is no means for removing such static electricity from the garment itself.
Attention is also directed to U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,699,590; 4,605,984; 4,577,256; 4,567,094; 3,678,675; 3,803,453; 3,823,035; 3,857,397; 4,104,695; 4,107,755; 4,523,252; 4,638,399; 4,619,275; 4,639,825; 4,662,695; 4,664,158; 4,676,561; and 4,677,521; the Handbook of Electrostatic Discharge Controls; and The Book of "Physical Principles", pages 27, 54-57, 72-75 and 96-99.